Thornhill Academy. Chapter 68

**Kael**

I opened my mouth, because fine, if she wanted to know so badly, then she was going to. I’d tell her everything. About the fight. About what Evander said. About how I couldn’t fucking stand being near her without wanting something I wasn’t supposed to want. But of course, golden boy beat me to it.

“It’s really nothing you need to worry about, Ally,” Evander said, his voice calm and low, the kind of voice that made people believe him without question.

I clenched my jaw. Of course, he didn’t want her to know. The mighty Drayke, too noble to admit that the cracks in his perfect life had anything to do with his best friend and his mate.

Allison rolled her eyes, the kind of sharp, exasperated gesture that could slice through steel. She picked up her plate, looked at Tessa, and said, “Let’s go.”

Tessa hesitated for half a heartbeat, because even she could feel the storm brewing, but then stood too, following Allison without a word. Evander pushed back his chair to follow, but Allison turned, eyes like flint. “Sort your shit out,” she said simply, and then she was gone.

The echo of her voice hung in the air, cutting deeper than it had any right to. Evander slumped back into his chair, dragging both hands through his hair, his shoulders sagging under the weight of everything unsaid. For a second, I saw the kid I’d grown up with, the one who used to sneak into my dorm to steal food, not the dragon shifter who’d decided to stake a claim on the one girl I couldn’t stop thinking about. He exhaled slowly and finally looked at me. I glared right back, the sound of my fork scraping across the plate loud in the tense quiet between us. I stabbed at my food once. Twice. Harder than necessary.

“Nice work,” I muttered. “Now she thinks we’re both assholes.”

He didn’t answer. Didn’t need to. The silence said enough. And maybe she was right, we were acting like idiots. But the thing about jealousy? It’s a kind of madness that doesn’t care about logic or friendship. I sighed, leaning back in my chair, staring at the door she’d just walked through.

“Sort our shit out,” I echoed quietly to myself. “Yeah. Easier said than done.”

**Evander**

The silence after she left was deafening. Her words—sort your shit out—rattled around in my skull like a bell I couldn’t silence. She’d said it so simply, so honestly, like it wasn’t the hardest damn thing in the world to do. I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, running both hands down my face until my palms dragged through my hair. The scent of her still lingered in the air, lavender and smoke, and somehow, it made everything worse. Kael hadn’t moved, still sitting across from me, his plate untouched now, the muscle in his jaw twitching as he stared at nothing. I hated this. Hated the tension, the space between us that hadn’t been there before her. For years, we’d fought beside each other, bled for each other, and trusted each other. He was the brother I chose. The one constant in a world that never stopped shifting. And now we were… this.

“Kael,” I said finally, my voice lower than I meant it to be. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. We were fine before all this.”

He let out a short, bitter laugh. “Before her, you mean?”

I didn’t answer, because yeah, that was exactly what I meant. And that made me feel like an even bigger piece of shit.

“I didn’t want this to happen,” I said quietly. “I didn’t ask for it. You think I wanted to fall for someone who’d turn everything upside down between us?”

Kael looked up then, those sharp hazel eyes burning into me, his expression tired but steady. “You think I did?”

The air between us tightened, heavy with unspoken things. I dragged a hand through my hair again, shaking my head. “You blindsided me, man. You dropped that on me like it was nothing.”

He snorted. “You think it was easy to say?” His voice rose slightly, but not in anger, just exhaustion. “I told you because it was true. Because it was tearing me apart pretending I didn’t feel it. And what was I supposed to do, lie to you every day? Pretend I don’t see her and feel something I’ve never felt before? Was I supposed to be able to sit here at lunches like this while you two hold hands and she looks at you like you hung the bloody moon for her and just hide the fact that I want to hang the stars? I know what she is to you, I respect that, but why can't you do the same for me? What would be so bloody wrong with sharing her with your best friend who just wants to love her too?”

“Kael—”

He stood, chair scraping back, his voice rough but firm. “I thought being brothers meant we could tell each other anything. Everything. I thought my feelings would matter too.”

They did. They do. But I couldn’t make myself say it. Because every time I looked at Allison, I felt my dragon stir, that raw, primal bond snapping tighter with every breath she took near me. It wasn’t something I could ignore or suppress, even if I wanted to. And the idea of her choosing someone else over me, made something ugly coil in my chest.

Kael sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, his shoulders slumping as some of the fire left him. “I’m not trying to take her from you, Ev. But you can’t ask me to turn off what I feel.”

“I’m not,” I said quietly. “I just… I don’t know how to fix this.”

He looked at me for a long moment, something almost sad in his eyes. “Yeah you do. You just don't want to.”

And with that, he turned and walked away, leaving me sitting in the middle of the noisy dining hall with the weight of everything pressing down like a mountain.